Men's Basketball

Senior Kevin Young embracing role mentoring KU’s freshmen bigs

Kansas forward Kevin Young celebrates a dunk by center Jeff Withey against Belmont during the second half on Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012 at Allen Fieldhouse.

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A superbly conditioned athlete, who, in his own words, could “run all day,” Kevin Young doesn’t need much downtime in a two-hour Kansas University basketball workout.

“I try to get in every possession at practice. One day coach (assistant Norm) Roberts said, ‘Take a break. These guys have got to learn the plays, too,’” senior power forward Young said of younger frontcourt players Perry Ellis and Jamari Traylor as well as red-shirt Landen Lucas.

“When he told me that, it dawned on me they are going to be in the game just as much as me. If they mess up, we lose possessions. It’s my role on the team to help them get better and make sure they know the plays and know what to do when they are out there,” Young added.

It hasn’t taken much urging from big-man coach Roberts or head coach Bill Self to get Young to embrace a leadership role on the 2012-13 KU team.

Remember, this is the same player, who, in taking off the 2010-11 season, worked as a volunteer assistant coach at Barstow Community College in California.

“Kevin is an unbelievable kid. He coaches those other (young) guys trying to get them better,” Self said. “He knows the better they get, they will not necessarily beat him out, but cut into his minutes because we become more balanced and deeper. It is good for our team later on. He gets that. It’s kind of fun to see,” Self added of such unselfishness.

“I’ve been really pleased with Kevin on how he’s utilized his maturity to help the young guys,” Self said.

Young, who played two seasons at Loyola Marymount, then played last year at KU, said he’s bought into everything surrounding KU’s tradition-rich program.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about me. It’s about us, and it’s about Kansas,” said Young. The 6-foot-8, 190-pounder averages 6.5 points and 6.7 rebounds a game heading into Sunday’s 3:30 p.m., home game against Temple.

“One of the biggest things I took in when I got here was coach’s philosophy on recruiting. He said it’s our duty to get somebody better (to come) here, and I am already leaving, so it’s not like I’m having much effect on bringing some new kids, so why not help the kids that are here?”

Young — he is majoring in African American studies with a minor in history — said he’s not yet decided if he’ll continue playing next year, become a coach or enter another field.

“My mom ... when she sees me coming home with scratches, says, ‘Maybe basketball is not cut out for you. Maybe you should start coaching already,’” Young said with a smile.

His mom, Alicia, and younger brother, Donovan, recently moved from Perris, Calif., to Lawrence as chronicled in the Journal World last month (http://bit.ly/Wjnyuz).

Young, by the way, said he has no plans on cutting his trademark afro hairstyle anytime soon.

“Probably not until the end of the season,” he said, smiling.

Wesley’s back: KU junior forward Justin Wesley practiced with limited contact on Friday and is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game, Self said. It’s expected he’ll be used only if he’s needed in the game. Wesley broke the little finger on his left hand on Dec. 13.

Larry vs. Danny: Former KU coach Larry Brown’s SMU team (10-5) will meet former KU All-American Danny Manning’s Tulsa team (8-6) at 7 p.m., Sunday, in Dallas. The game will be televised locally on cable channels 36, 236 and 144.

“It’s pretty neat to see a guy that was arguably the best collegiate player of the decade of the 80s — right there collegiately maybe (the best) in the last 30 years — that led his team to the national championship coaching against the coach that everybody feels like was maybe the best X’s and O’s guy, best last-minute strategist our sport has seen in many, many years,” said Self.

Tough for Tad: Self on Colorado’s last-second, game winning shot against Arizona being waved off Thursday after the officials checked the replay. CU went on to lose in overtime.

“Tad (Boyle, former KU player and current CU coach) is right on this point ... when the NCAA tournament committee is evaluating if you are on the bubble or not, they are not going to say, ‘Well, this should have been.’ They are going to go off the facts and the facts are Arizona won the game,” Self said. “That is why I think it is so important we get it right (by checking replay and making sure the replay table has high-definition TV replay that is available to the networks).”

Hudy honored: Andrea Hudy, KU’s assistant athletic director for sports performance, has been named the National College Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). Hudy is receiving her award this weekend at the annual NSCA Coaches Conference in Nashville.

“It is a privilege to honor Andrea Hudy and recognize her achievement,” NSCA Founder Boyd Epley said. “Andrea’s well-earned award and her contributions shape the NSCA into what it is today.”

No. 15 prospect considers KU: Leron Black, a 6-7, 215-pound junior power forward from Memphis’ White Station High, who decommitted from Baylor this week, has KU on his list of schools, Rivals.com reports. The country’s No. 15-rated player in the Class of 2014 lists KU, Kentucky, Ohio State, Florida, UConn, Memphis, Missouri, N.C. State, Louisville, Tennessee, Vanderbilt as well as Baylor.

And you just wanted to be a part of the conversation. I see that. But be constructive or with this crowd, you'll be labeled a misery, kensucky, or mildcat troll rather quickly. Just ask aperse haha. Took him months to get out of the troll doghouse.

I get my updates from Espn pretty easy. I did it through the Espn app on iOS (app is on android as well). You can pick what updates you want. I have halftime and full time basketball updates for ku, also quarterly updates for football. You can also have it set for all sports updates if you follow NBA, nfl, MLB, etc. also all breaking news (major injuries, awards, coaching changes, whatever) texted to me as well.

"You could make a strong case that KU has the best fans in college basketball. Not the most; that is Kentucky. Not the most inventive; that is Duke. Definitely not the meanest; a title shared by many. Just the best."

KY continues to impress me. Last year I appreciated his energy, enthusiasm, unselfish play and passing skills. This year I'm even more impressed with his attitude and unselfish leadership as noted in the story above. Coach Self's decision to recruit him turned out to be well-founded.

Hearty congratulations to Hudy! What a huge asset to have someone like her on staff.

Add Kevin to the list of Hawks I'd love to see on the coaching staff someday. He has a really good chance to join an elite group to make multiple Final Fours here as a player, and despite his limitations we'd have little chance without the effort he brings. The only sad thing is he's running out of eligibility.

I read it as just the opposite. By saying the refs needd better equipement to get calls right tells me that they didn't have the good stuff and got it wrong. But Self being Self, he blamed the equipment quality and not the refs ability to show that it was not the refs fault the call was wrong.

How cool would it be to see KY on the sidelines as a grad assistant next year??? That's assuming he doesn't get a ballin' gig overseas somewhere. Seems to me he could make some serious $$ over there and then be back in a few years at AFH.
I'd love to see his energy hopping around the bench in a few years.

BUT, I might add that we need a little more hype surrounding Danny coaching against his Coach! A historic moment for KU in Dallas on Sunday. Wouldn't you like to be in Larry and Danny's head when they see each other on the sidelines?

I don't know if referees ever cheat for a home team, but Colorado sure got screwed in Arizona. I don't know how the refs could have made such a terrible decision. That the ball was shot before the clock expired, it read 1, and the backboard had yet turned red was obvious on TV. Yet the wrong decision was made despite the call having to be reversed. One of the on floor refs had held up two hands indicating it was a valid three point shot. I don't care that Tad is a KU grad. He'd be right if he had gone to Missouri on this one. Then I heard the self serving Pac 12 commissioner on Sports Center endorse the off court call. Really sickening. Thank God it wasn't KU getting the sharft.

I half way agree with Tad on replay. It has made watching a football game impossible to enjoy. It's like the Zapruder film all over again if a quarterback drops a football. In basketball, it is riduclous how long they interrupt the game for to determine calls that anyone with a TV can see in 2 seconds, like whether a shot is 2 or 3. If it is so close you need 37 film engineers to make a best guess, don't bother.

The problem in the CU game was that the refs were looking at a much lower definition video than every single other person on the planet who has bought a TV set since 2003. If they can't work in the modern age, don't use it at all.

yates: I saw the end of the game. One thing that was apparent on the replays was that the time in the bottom right was not synced with the time on the backboard. Meaning the clock in the bottom right said .1 and the clock on the scoreboard read .0 in the same frame. It was very close.

Also, the ref holding up his hands is not watching the clock. He's looking at the feet for the 3 three pointer. He just signaled that it was a three pointer. None of the refs at the end of the game gave the signal that the basket counted, which is different. But then again, none waved it off, either.

As I learned yesterday, there is no presumption that a call on the court "stands" going to reply. Meaning, you look at reply and make the call (it's not like the NFL rule).

What I was astonished to learn is that there was no HD feed at the scorer's table. That means refs had a worse look at it than we did.

I think I would agree with you, though. When I looked at it, it appeared from the side view that the ball was just barely out of his hand when the clock on the backboard hit zero. Barely. By an inch. It was very, very close. And even more, I agree with you on what is the common and sickening defense of officials. It happens at all levels. This almost reactive mechanism to defend an official regardless of contrary evidence. I could right a book on that, but my blood pressure would become a problem.

Anyway, I think a non-HD view would have been a bit grainy, and that could have been the deciding factor.

I saw the non-HD version and watched it frame by frame. You couldn't even tell where the ball was. So I can't definitively say the call was wrong but it looked like it. There was no way to tell either when the backboard light came on. With the camera angle it had, the light may have always been on. There was no change at zero. HD and more angles could fix both problems.

I have worked games in Tuscon (at the computer which provides the graphic which has the score and clock). As I recall connecting to the scoreboard and data was not a problem at that venue. As recently as two years ago, it was impossible to connect to data at two of our finest universities - Stanford and Cal. Unknown to TV viewers, we ran a manual clock on the TV bug to match the scoreboard. Being off by a second or two is not a problem unless the end of a half or game is tight. If so, it is nearly impossible to match the scoreboard tenth for tenth. It's possible that data connection failed and that the game was being manually timed. I doubt it, but possible.

As for the monitors at the table, yes they are small and low resolution. Perhaps size restrictions prevent them from being hi-def.

Kevin Young is a great young man and has a great future to match a wonderful personality. His personality is going to pay great dividends in all he does as a person, player or possibly a good coach. This seems to be a huge oversight that many people fail to see how Self not only develops players, but he also makes great investments with the future of college bball. I don't see too many coaches making the same investment. It's great to see your players go on to the next level, but Self got it as a player and many of his players are realizing how important it is to give back to a great game. Only the great coaches have created players and coaches. It's almost as good as a NC.
Lastly, Hudy is a great asset to KU's athletic program. She can't be appreciated enough for how she contributes to the players and the program. Congrats to Andrea Hudy for a well deserved honor.

One of the biggest stories from Self's press conference was his statement that he's moving to an 8 man rotation. Starters, plus Tharpe, Ellis, Traylor. Thought that was some pretty big news for AW3 fans. But we'll see.

Also, if you missed it, jaybate had a nice write up on the three point shooting "cocaine" a few days ago ... meaning, that in our nice stretch here, we've been pretty reliant on the outstanding three point shooting. And that doesn't usually last. Of course, he's right.

I did look at three point shooting %s over last few years:

-2008-09: 37.1

-2009-10: 40.4

-2010-11: 38.2

-2011-12: 34.5

-This season: 37.8

I think the point is though that hot stretches of three point shooting can make things look rosier than they are. In the last 5 games, we have shot 47.8% from three (cocaine). Contrast that to the first stretch of games to give us our average of 37.8.

One thought on this team, and next season's team -- we may be transitioning to more of a perimeter based team anyway. We're getting a lower percentage of our points in the paint this season than any season in since and including our title season. And our prospects for significant post scoring is diminished for next season, unless we score on Randle.

If you look at the players we have coming in, our strength should be on the perimeter because we would only have one real post scorer (Ellis), again assuming no Randle.

This team can shoot 40% for the season. We do have the ability to do that. It is not beyond reason. Our 2009-10 team did it. We might be able to do better. But all that matters is what we do from here. If we can shoot at a 42-43% rate from three from here on out, watch out. Is that crazy to suggest?

drgnslayr: Thanks .. enoyed your post as well. I think I see 2013 perhaps the same way. Outside shooting (Tharpe, White, Greene, Frankamp) and even slashing (Selden and Adams) setting up the scoring inside, opening things up for better looks inside. More outside in. Personally, offensively, my preference has always been for having more athletic bigs, no true center, and playing more of that style of game.

If we don't land Randle, inside play will really be a challenge. Right now, if I'm an opponent of KU for 2013, I just scribble "double Ellis when he touches the ball inside 8 feet" in my notebook and put it away.

I see little coming from Traylor his sophomore season. He'll have a steady trajectory, but I fear not too steep. Perhaps like Darnell Jackson but with a lower endpoint. I also don't expect Lucas to be anything more than a body next season. Neither comments regarding Traylor or Lucas are a slam. They are four year guy needing continued development. Embiid is a wildcard, but again, I side with you there. More of a project. Maybe a guy that is defense and rebounding, with highly unrefined post skills on offense. But a steeper trajectory and ahead of Traylor and Lucas by his sophomore season. But we're talking 2013.

I do think we'll be different. More erratic. A team that could stumble more than we're used to. The true "down year." But if that happens .. and because of coach Self I'll never be fully convinced it will until it does happen .. but if it does, it won't be a surprise. Down year, of course, might mean 8-10 losses.

Way to bring the trey stats. That puts things in perspective. Especially like that 38% before, 48% after, the hot streak. I will sleep better knowing a statistically significant chance exists for 40-44%. I wonder what the standard deviation was for those same four seasons. As a one time laborer in quantitative analysis, shapes of distributions are near and dear to my stochastic heart.

Ah, you're talking now about what's really relevant. About what gets teams eliminated in the NCAA tournament. It's just a hunch, but a team that has the bullets in a closer grouping is more likely to survive and advance -- both in three point shooting and overall.

The VCU game was a great example. We strayed too far from the mean there. VCU wasn't necessarily hot, they played a very good game, and we slumped into the poor range. A little less variation in our play there, and we're good. UNI .. they played excellent. We played poor again and still nearly pulled it out.

Contrast to 2011-12. While last year's team was a poor three point shooting team, it was neutralized by our balance, by our team's consistency. Last year's team was like Rocky. Just kept coming, kept plodding, didn't get knocked out .. persistent. Not huge variations in our performance. A team that developed an amazing character related to that constistency and persistence. Maybe not as "good" on paper. But a more reliable liklihood of high level performance.

It's perhaps a bit too early to get a clear read on this team. Big 12 road games will hopefully help us plot those points. You pointed out a concern about being tested. I do think we'll get the tests.

Because of his ability to be a pogo-windmill while guarding the in bounds pass, he started the first full court press steal this year. Does he really need to come out of a game for rest when he always seems fresher than anyone who guards him. As an assistant coach, he should always demand that his teams keep up with him. What Jayhawk can ever forget watching him be put in to the game for the final play on defense against Mizzou. As the camera zoomed in on his face, they didn't see fearless grit on his face, they saw a hollywood smile as he fell back in to his defensive position. Self chose you last year to be in the game at the most important time. Conference play is going to be a ton of fun. After two weeks with only two games, we will go to 4 games in 8 days.

Former shuttle astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz has started a company called Ad Astra Rocket Company and has designed an engine called VASMIR, an acronym for Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket engine. The engine ionizes gases such as xenon or hydrogen to create superheated plasma stream for thrust.

jaybate's Institute for Advanced Basketball Research did some data mining on shoes, as part of its on-going funding of research into the dynamic linkages between school choice and shoe contracts, and found this piece of research produced by none other than University of Kansas researchers published in that trendy rag--the Journal of Research in Personality.

Women who wear stilettos on downtown streets late at night in sub zero, snowy conditions either had a car break down on the way to a a chic restaurant, or are hookers trying to make ends meet.

Ahem.

No, the researchers did not really say that at all.

I inserted that egregious, tongue-in-cheek falsehood to hold board rats' attentions long enough to get them to go to this link and read a sliver of what shoes tell us about ourselves, and then to ask what Addias, Nike, Under Armor, and Russell are trying to tell us about ourselves with their designs.

Say, I wonder if one of these ShoeCos funded this research? And if the researches did not get ShoeCo granting for this research, well, then, maybe they should seek a grant from the foundations of the ShoeCos to do some research on shoes. Consider this idea a late XMAS gift aimed at helping some KU grad students/professors gain/hold an edge in the terrier-eat-terrier world of publish or perish.

Maybe one of the KU researchers is also a board rat and will inform us what these various ShoeCo brands are trying to lock into with their styling, regarding our personalities, for their commercial benefit.

There is something about certain pairs of boots that become almost a part of one's body. Simple shoes never get to be more than simple foot coverage, maybe a bit of a stylin' look, but nothing more.

My boot affair happened with a pair of Lucchesi cowboy boots. Not an expensive pair I bought new when I could finally afford them, but an old pair I found in a thrift store that I had resoled. I wore them for a year once, when I was young and single and far from home.

Bob Dylan wrote "Boots of Spanish Leather," not "Penny Loafers of Spanish Leather."

Certainly I am never faithful to a single pair of shoes as I have been for periods to a single pair of boots. I think your phrasing "lugging them around" and their service to you through a trying, adventuresome time of your life, where you were walking a lot, especially if you were single then says most. When one is most truly alone in one's life, certain useful things become in a sense one's truest friends.

I always remember (and have kept) my father's lace up leather boots that he had custom made in Auckland, New Zealand after ruining a government issue pair on Bougaineville during WWII. His unit had gone to Auckland for R&R. His experience on Bougaineville had made him not expect to survive WWII, so he spent every cent he had on this pair of custom boots. Finest leather I have ever seen. Cut and formed exactly to his feet. Thick, yet supple. Thick, layered leather soles, too, with metal horse shoes around the bottom of heels and rounded tips of capped toes. Rose about 4 inches above the ankle. Reddish brown he said, before 4000 intermittent applications of lard to keep them water proof over the years. He wore them through Guam, and then through Iwo Jima, and then wore them all the way home. He wore them hunting for 10 years after, too. I still remember him heating up the beef suette, or lard, but never bacon grease, in the cast iron skillet and then dunking the rag in when it had cooled a bit and slathering it all over the boots uppers and soles. I remember rubbing it in for him and then repeating the process a couple times till the leather would absorb no more. It made the boots utterly water proof. It was AMAZING!!!

He only quit wearing them when his arches fell and he needed a bigger size. He loved them. He let me wear them only grudgingly. I wore them only one hunting season before my feet got too big for them. But they were the best boot I ever wore. They were warm when it was cold and not too hot, when it was warm. And with the lard sealant, I walked through water to my ankles without ever a leak and this was 20 years after he had first worn them. The soles and heels were never replaced. The metal horse shoes, as he called them, were worn, but protected the soles and heels. And the lard treatments kept the uppers from cracking and the soles from rotting. It was amazing. Everyone says today the worst thing you can do for a leather saddle, or fine leather shoes, is plug up the pores with lard. But these boots seemed to thrive on lard. Every pair of leather soled shoes I have ever owned got wasted in the rain and slush. But not those boots. From years in the tropics to New Zealnd to years in Kansas milo fields in Kansas winters, they never quit!

Whenever talk of them came up, whenever he picked them up and worked them with his big fingers, sooner or later, he said, "I never took them off for two weeks straight on Iwo. Came ashore in them in the salt water. Struggled through that miserable, red volcanic ash. Dug in in them, or tried to in that red crap. Crawled in them. They never cracked or cut on those jagged volcanic rocks. Stripped naked except for them to take a sulfur bath one day. Slept in them. Walked across an airfield shin deep in shrapnel in them--scratched them up, but never cut through them. God these were good boots...." And then he never finished and hurriedly changed the subject.

Perhaps you were a young man on your own and very far from home and those boots were your only sure friends that you could always depend on.

I know this isn't a football article, but there wasn't one posted today so I figured I'd ask here. What happened with Reeve Koehler at the Army All-American game? Last I saw was that he was supposed to make his decision during the game, but now Rivals is saying he's visiting Arkansas on the 18th. When did that happen and how much does that affect KU's chances at landing him and keeping Colton Goeas since those two are supposedly a package deal?

If everyone returned for next year, UK would have 13 scholarship players although he would make room for Randle, Wiggins, or Gordon. Expecting several players to leave early, so UK could actually sign a couple more recruits.